"In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the essays, I am saying that we can survive."

"The needs of a society determine its ethics."

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

"The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence."

"There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

"Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity."

"I make my living with words, but my life with people."

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her."

"Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable."

"I sustain myself with the love of family."

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."

"Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

"Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily."

"Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find his own liberation."